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Dessert

Fruit Cake

A baked cake made with butter, sugar, molasses, spices, fruit, nuts, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Fruit Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. Slice the citron and orange peel.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter and sugar together.

  2. Add the mixed spices, molasses, beaten egg yolks, part of the flour, brandy, and lemon juice.

  3. Mix in the remaining flour.

  4. Fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites.

  5. Finally, add the floured fruit and nuts.

  6. Pour the batter into a prepared pan.

Bake

  1. Bake for about 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Lemon + walnuttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,149 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Molasses + raisintop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,577 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Orange + walnuttop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creams with sugar to trap air and add richness and tender texture.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Egg whites (in the method)
Whipped to foam, they lighten the batter and help it rise.
Molasses
Adds dark color, moisture, and a deep, slightly bitter sweetness.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses and lemon juice to help the cake rise.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Folding in the stiffly beaten egg whites. Overmixing deflates the whipped egg whites, losing the air that lightens the batter. Fold gently with a spatula until just combined so the cake rises evenly and stays light.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, molasses, brandy, lemon, orange, raisin):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits about as well
  3. Pistachiofits about as well
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, molasses, brandy, lemon, orange, raisin. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

More fruit cake recipes

White 89Black 40Christmas 29Eggless 27Molasses 23Apple 17 See all 952 →

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